GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Player of the Game Braden Clark (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) scored four times as two-time (2022, 2023) defending National Champion/No. 1-ranked/Southwest Division Champion the University of California-San Diego outmatched Florida Division runner-up Florida State University, 18-4, in the opening game of the 2024 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Florida at the Ann Marie Rogers Swimming & Diving Pool in the O’Connell Center.
The victory advances UC-San Diego into a quarterfinal clash on Saturday, November 9, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern against the victor of an opening round contest pitting Rocky Mountain Division Champion/No. 17 the University of Colorado and Atlantic Division Champion/No. 19 the University of Virginia. Florida State – which can not finish higher than Ninth Place in the final 16-team championship standings due to the loss – will face the fallen from the Virginia-Colorado game at 9:50 p.m. Eastern later this evening in a consolation contest.
The Tritons never trailed versus the Seminoles as Gonzalo Rivera (Gr., Madrid, Spain) broke the ice with a strike at the 6:19 mark of the first quarter prior to Graham McClone (Gr., Placerville, Calif.) pumping in back-to-back markers at 5:45 and 1:48 to inflate UC-San Diego’s lead to 3-0.
TJ Turner (Jr., Escondido, Calif.) (1:14, penalty shot) and Nikolai Haines (Gr., Ventura, Calif.) (18 seconds) wrapped up the opening seven minutes of competition by denting the twine to hand the defending National Champions a 5-0 advantage on the scoreboard.
Bennett Roberts (Jr., Orlando, Fla.) shattered a shutout bid by UCSD goalkeeper Bryce Elsner (Gr., Carlsbad, Calif.) 18 seconds into the second quarter by slipping a ball into the twine at the 6:42 mark to inch Florida State back to within four goals at 5-1.
However, Joseph Holloway (Sr., Rocklin, Calif.) (5:46, man-up) and Peter Olson (Sr., Coronado, Calif.) (5:21) swished responses to inflate the margin to 7-1 before Keanu Pascual (Sr., Tustin, Calif.) delivered a counterpoint for the Seminoles with 4:13 until halftime to set the scoreboard at 7-2.
The remainder of the first half was the domain of UC-San Diego as Clark (3:33; 2:12) and Matthew Spry (Jr., San Diego, Calif.) (3:00, man-up) combined for a 3-0 outburst prior to the concluding horn of the second quarter to stake the Tritons to an 11-2 lead.
Scoring in the third quarter slowed down as Rivera (5:18) and Clark (52 seconds) inflicted the only damage of the frame to widen the gap between the programs to 13-2 entering the final seven minutes of action in the fourth quarter.
Turner (6:41, man-up) and Holloway (5:14) started the fourth quarter with back-to-back markers to make it a 15-2 game, Brandon Massi (Jr., Orlando, Fla.) answered via a penalty shot at 4:52 to pull FSU within 15-3 and the duo of Filippo Sallustio (Jr., Roma, Italy) (4:08; 30 seconds) and Clark (3:25) torqued in a trio of tallies to make it 18-3. Andrew Jernigan (Jr., Apopka, Fla.) capped off the scoring with 15 ticks left in regulation by lining home a man-up opportunity for Florida State to establish the 18-4 final score.
For FSU, the quartet of Pascual, Massi, Roberts and Jernigan combined for all of the Seminoles’ markers in support of a nine save effort by netminder Matthew Salcedo (Sr., Oviedo, Fla.).
Across the tank, Clark (four), Holloway (two), Haines (two), McClone (two), Rivera (two), Sallustio (two) and Turner (two) registered multi-goal games to combine for 16 of the Tritons’ 18 strikes. Olson and Spry chipped in solo strikes. Elsner finished with eight saves.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| Florida State University |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | – | 4 |
| No. 1 University of California-San Diego | 5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | – | 18 |
| UCSD Goals: | Braden Clark (4); Joseph Holloway (2); Nikolai Haines (2); Graham McClone (2); Gonzalo Rivera (2); Filippo Sallustio (2); TJ Turner (2); Peter Olson; Matthew Spry | |||||
| Florida State Goals: | Keanu Pascual; Brandon Massi; Bennett Roberts; Andrew Jernigan | |||||
| Saves: | UCSD – Bryce Elsner (8) ; Florida State – Matthew Salcedo (9) | |||||
| Exclusions: | UCSD – 6 ; Florida State – 6 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | UCSD – 4-for-6; Florida State – 2-for-6 | |||||
| Sprints: | UCSD – 2-for-4 (3rd, 4th) ; Florida State – 2-for-4 (1st, 2nd) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Ted Bresnahan; Michael Schofield | |||||
Florida State University’s Lleyton Jobin (#23) gets a shot past the University of California-San Diego’s Aaron Kann (#16)
Florida State University’s Andrew Jernigan (#21) drives to shoot as the University of California-San Diego’s Joseph Holloway (#7) pursues
University of California-San Diego’s Joao Avanzi-Mesquita (#9) & Gonzalo Rivera (#12) defend Florida State University’s Alexander Hamberg (#4)
